How do I map my Windows 7 hard drive within XP mode so I can move files? In My Computer, the drive appears, but right-clicking doesn't provide a Properties or a Map Drive option.

If I click on Tools | Map Network Drive, the only "computer" that's available to me under Browse is the XP mode. The main Windows 7 computer doesn't appear under my Home workgroup. (I have set up the workgroup Home in both Windows 7 and XP mode.)

I'm interested in knowing also. Its easy as can be in VirtualBox and VMPlayer but that requires ownership of a copy of XP. I'm going to go get it right now and learn more and also monitor this thread for further enlightenment.

You should be able to right-click on the drive and select Explore or Open, or double-click, or click on the + in from of the mapped drive if you are using the two-column explorer view. At least, that is the way it works for me in XP mode.

The XP virtual machine and the Win 7 machine act like two networked computers.
To be able to map the Win 7 shared folders from the XP machine
- File and printer sharing has to be enabled on the Win 7 machine
- Access must be granted to the credentials being used by the XP
- The XP machine and Win 7 machine have to be in the same workgroup
- The XP machine and Win 7 machine have to be in the same IP subnet - check with IPConfig
If the XP machine has a strange IP address then read on:

I had this problem also when I first set up my system and it turned out I had to change the network configuration in the virtual machine:
- in users\current login\virtual machines there is a file called Windows XP Mode.vmcx (XP Mode VM config file)
- right click on it and open settings
- click on network/network adapter
- network adapter 1 should be the same adapter as the Win7 machine uses. If it is set to internal or shared network (NAT) then I was unable to map drives between the two machines until I changed it to use the real network adapter in the computer.

Once you set the adapter and restart the virtual machine it will become visible to the Win 7 machine (and vice versa) and to other suitably configured machines on the local network as if it were a separate machine. It even has its own IP address. Then map drives as usual.

I had this problem also when I first set up my system and it turned out I had to change the network configuration in the virtual machine:
- in users\current login\virtual machines there is a file called Windows XP Mode.vmcx (XP Mode VM config file)
- right click on it and open settings
- click on network/network adapter
- network adapter 1 should be the same adapter as the Win7 machine uses. If it is set to internal or shared network (NAT) then I was unable to map drives between the two machines until I changed it to use the real network adapter in the computer.

Good tips, I would only add that in windowed XP mode (for some reason it doesn't seem to have the Tools options in full screen) one can access the Tools>Settings and change the network adapter there. Also, while one can certainly map drives in quite easily, all of the Win 7 partitions were already visible and accessible in the Other section of My Computer, including the network drives I had mapped from Win 7.

One thing I just realized is that with XP mode installed and setup for full network functionality, it is possible to be using Win 7 Pro locally and also have the ability to allow someone to remote in to XP virtual and use the system at the same time, and virtual XP seems to be plenty fast enough to use remotely, at least over my home network. Even though I'm late to catch on to that possibility (having run VMPlayer and VirtualBox and never thought of it), its new and cool to me!

Not so! With either product you can convert your "free" Windows XP (the one included with Windows 7) to the alternative platform.

Good point, I hadn't thought of that if XP mode is just a standard VHD. I'm finding XP mode to be pretty comparable so far to the other two VMs mentioned, with much better video and peripheral interfaces than it had back when I tried Virtual PC 2007 initially.

... it is possible to be using Win 7 Pro locally and also have the ability to allow someone to remote in to XP virtual and use the system at the same time, ...

Hi Byron

Yes, I have been doing that also, and the nice thing is since the XP mode has a separate IP you can route external connections to it via a router and thereby support 2 concurrent remote connections. Also I have been using a shared db with file/record locking in this environment and it works fine.

I have been thinking of using this as an application platform for some of my customers running legacy (Novell 3.x) systems. I was concerned about the legality of concurrent users on a non-server OS, but my reading of the EULAs has me convinced it is OK, though I am by no means an expert.

One thing I just realized is that with XP mode installed and setup for full network functionality, it is possible to be using Win 7 Pro locally and also have the ability to allow someone to remote in to XP virtual and use the system at the same time, and virtual XP seems to be plenty fast enough to use remotely, at least over my home network.

This sounds like a solution to the problem of sharing (not concurrently using) software that allows installation on only a single machine. Will this allow a remote user to run an Adobe app, for example, while a local user is running MS Office?

Presumably so, yes, as long as the application was installed in the XP Mode VM, it should be available, though there are sometimes multimeadia issues associated with remote desktop. So its still like having a dual boot system in that apps would have to be installed on both "systems," with the exception that 7Pro and up will run an XP Mode app, so I guess one could install most everything in the XP Mode VM, but that will be a little slower and may cause log in/user conflicts for concurrent remote desktop use. Best if the app. was installed in both.